Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Finder's keepers

(Apologies for the lateness of this post - it was supposed to go up last week, but for some reason, some automated spam detector within Blogger decided that this was a 'spam blog' and cut me off from posting until I convinced them I was a human being with a real blog. Way to write an algorithm, guys.)

Well, firstly, as promised, we have visuals of my latest knitting poichases:

That thar is two sets of 3mm DPNs, 200g of black sock yarn, 100g of forest green sock yarn, and (alas) zero grams of wedgewood blue sock yarn with black and white flecks (it's on back-order).

This gives me some sock yarn to play with again and enables me to keep going on my MIL's Christmas present (more on that further down).

But first...an opportunity borne of tragedy...

Peacock Feathers Shawl for Mom

Last week, I was taking the subway on my way to work and I had probably about six rows left to knit before I could start on the crocheted edging. I knitted all through the ride, and when I came to my stop, I packed up and left the train, confident that I'd probably be able to finish all the knitting on this project before the end of the day.

On my way towards my office building, I was stopped by a very nice lady who pointed out that I was trailing several metres of yarn behind me, from my backpack. How strange. I thanked her, wound up the excess and put it back into my bag. Then, I stopped. Again...how strange, I thought. Why would I be trailing yarn? Was it really the other end of the yarn ball, as I'd originally assumed, or...

OR...

Had I actually left the yarn behind me on the train, had the length between the yarn and the shawl break behind me as the train pulled out of the station, and was now almost yarnless for the rest of the day?

I checked.

Why yes, yes, that's EXACTLY what happened.

Grrr.

There are a lot of 'fortunately's to this tale. Firstly, I didn't lose the actual shawl project, just the yarn ball it was attached to. Secondly, I only had about 25-50g (best guess) left on the yarn ball, so the loss was not great. Thirdly, I had over two additional pounds of the same yarn sitting in my stash, so there was absolutely no risk of running out of yarn for this project.

What DID piss me off was that, once I'd exhausted the two or three metres of yarn that had been left trailing behind my oblivious self, I couldn't do any more knitting on the shawl that day until I got home. That was the part that blew. That, and looking like a total idiot as I walked off the train still attached to a ball of yarn. Sigh.

ANYWAY, all this to say...if you have been in Toronto over the past two weeks or so, and have happened across a small ball of forest green lambswool/camel hair blend yarn? Consider it yours. :) I wish you joy of it. But I do highly recommend that you wash it before using it!

Meanwhile, once I returned home that day, I was able to continue knitting the shawl, and I finished it off. All that was left to do was the crocheted edging. Unfortunately, since I am not a crocheter, I have a very limited crochet hook collection (can a single crochet hook really be considered a "collection"?), so I had to borrow the size I needed...from my mom. :) That's right, I needed to borrow equipment from the intended gift recipient herself. (I will point this out to her with great glee when she opens it at Christmas.) Of course, I didn't tell her what I was going to use the hook for, and fortunately, she didn't ask.

So! It is done! All except the sewing-in of ends and the blocking. Here it is looking unblocked and noodly:

Here it is pseudo-blocked on my living room carpet:

I intend to complete it this weekend.

Elizabethan Jacket for MIL

The arrival of the 3mm DPNs meant that I could stop wasting my time trying to do the magic loop with the sleeves, and start all over again from the beginning of the fair isle part. The difference - both in ease of knitting and in the quality of my work - between the too-short circular and the just-right DPNs has been PRONOUNCED. It's not as easy to do as the body (round and round on a circular needle), but I'm happy with the output and the work is definitely moving along. I'm approaching the halfway point for the sleeve increases.

Hooray.

Baby leggings for 'Eleven'

Well, firstly, before the baby actually gets born (2.5 weeks until I'm full-term! Augh!), I would like to explain to you all why we have been calling this fetus 'Eleven'. It's definitely not a self-explanatory nickname like 'Bump' or 'Junior'. So here's how it went down.

We announced the news to my family at Thanksgiving dinner, at my parents' place. The plan was to sequester ourselves in my parents room for a few minutes, tell DD, and then let HER have the fun of telling the rest of the family. Everything went very much according to plan. She went absolutely wild at the news, and when I asked if she wanted to run out and tell my grandmother and aunts, I swear she achieved light speed on her way outta there. :) So anyway, fast forward to the evening, when we put DD to bed in my parents room so she could get a head start on sleep until we were ready to go home. She was saying good-night to everyone, and I saw a good opportunity to get her to practice counting stuff.

"How many people are here, sweetie?" I asked.

She went all around the room and correctly counted ten people. Then someone said, "What about the baby?"

"Oh, yeah!" she said, pointing to my tummy. "Eleven!"

And it stuck.

(Fortunately, I believe DD has fully grasped the concept that Eleven is not going to be the baby's ultimate name after it emerges from me. She has, in fact, suggested some names of her own, some of which are kind of neat and some of which - like 'Tennennininaninina' - are not.)

So that's the story.

Anyhoo, back to knitting...I've moved ahead on knitting the second leg of these leggings, and am now approaching the foot. With any luck, I'll actually have done something for this poor, un-knitted-for child by the time it arrives. (Did I mention just 2.5 weeks until I'm full-term? I'm FREAKING OUT!)